Redskins Pick Clausen!

Well I like the look of the possible Washington Post sports section headline even if it is a bit premature........

Who can remember an NFL draft with four quality quarterbacks in the offering? Two, possibly three going early in the first round? All from big time programs, all having household names, and all with some sort of baggage.

Mike Shanahan, the something like 30th new head coach in 11 or 13 years for the Washington Redskins (Deadskins) is dying to bring in a young buck to nurture and put under his wing to help build back up the franchise. The current QB, Jason Campbell is at best an expensive holdover placeholder. Recently purchased from the Bears, Rex Grossman can only be an insurance policy. Not sure the status of Colt Brennan or what’s his name, Richard Bartel, but one will be history by fall camp. Rumors around town indicate Shanahan is going to do any and everything to land Sam Bradford. This means dealing with the Rams who have the first overall pick and who really like Bradford as well. Of course, a lot of this is bluffing and posturing, all part of the high stakes drafting game. The Skins have the fourth pick, but really need to rebuild their offensive line.

The Redskins let former Notre Damer Hunter Smith go due to free agency (plus a nagging groin injury), so currently there are no former Notre Dame players on their active roster. This is intolerable and I’ve let owner Little Danny Snyder know it. I’m hoping Shanahan will come to his senses and pick up Jimmy Clausen.

Jimmy is behind the power curve right now because of his toe injury and not being able to try-out at the NFL Combine. Of course, he was not the only one, but Bradford, Tebow, and McCoy now have been performing private auditions all over the place. Jimmy is scheduled for a special NLF scout showing in South Bend, before draft day. He alos has a number of private workouts scheduled as well.

Here is one possible order the four will be drafted but have no idea by which team due to all the cards being played so closely to the vest.

Sam Bradford, Oklahoma. Excess baggage: Serious shoulder injury early in the 2009 season. Just coming off shoulder reconstruction surgery.

Tim Tebow, Florida. Excess baggage: Playing almost exclusively from the shotgun. Footwork, throwing motion suspect.

Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame. Excess baggage: Rumors (From ESPN/McShay) of not being a leader or team player. Did not do as well as expected on the Combine intelligence test. Has yet to show his stuff for the NFL scouts.

Colt McCoy, Texas. Excess baggage: Shoulder injury. Lack of arm strength.

Stay tuned on ESPN for April 22-24 draft. Well at least the first round anyway.

UPDATE: Well for cryin out loud. The Redskins traded two draft picks for Donovan McNabb. Probably the right choice for an instant restart of an awful offense.

A Double Edged Sword

Coach Kelly announced quite a while back that he was changing the timeframe when walk-ons would be permitted to try-out. Most teams, Notre Dame included, conduct try-outs and evaluation personnel during spring practice. Kelly has pushed this back to the fall camp. While not fully explaining the shift, it is apparent that he and his staff will have their hands full installing a new offense (spread) and defense (3-4) as well as evaluating the scholarship talent on-hand.

The other edge of the sword in the fall of course is the influx of freshman and now with a group of walk-ons to evaluate.

I got the overall impression from Kelly’s explanation that he is lukewarm to walk-ons.

Thoughts? Pro and Con?

One Down and Fourteen to Go

Well like everyone else, I dove into the wide selection of articles and video chronicling the first day of spring practice. NDNation has a pretty good list. I came away with the following:

Practice appears to be a cross between a Chinese fire drill and a well orchestrated version of the keystone cops. Tempo, pace, fast were common words. The end result is not to blow games in the fourth quarter and have plenty left in the gas tank. After watching the self destruction at the end of last year, you don't have to convince me.

The media gets 45 minutes viewing practice instead of the Weis era 20 to gather material for articles. Guess that makes for a friendlier media and a longer honeymoon period.

Less stretching, less talking between the players discussing who scored last night with a cheerleader, and much more intense drills.

Eric Maust chose pitching over punting this spring. If he doesn’t get drafted as a pitcher he may come back for a fifth year. Why bother? Neither Eric or young Turk impressed me last year.

Kelly Era Begins?

Some say the Brian Kelly Era began with the signing of his contract. Others when he inked his first recruiting class and still others when winter conditioning began. Me, I say it really started today, Friday March 26, 2010 when he blew his whistle and called to order the first day of spring training.

I don’t know if the tulips and daffodils are breaking through the soil on campus yet, but I feel spring and eternal optimism in the air here in West Virginia. Lot of folks have a wait and see attitude after getting on CW's bandwagon only to get bumped off with the second loss to Navy. Oh well.

Didn’t go to the Blue-Gold Game last year, but plan on making the trip on April 24th. Want to get a new T-shirt as well and see the new construction.

Did read where Kelly is going to use the old fashion-traditional system of scoring instead of the impossible scoring system Charlie used the last couple of years. I don’t know which is better or if either one mean anything. Just hope no one gets hurt during the game.

Wish the ND girl’s basketball team the best of luck. Sure thought the men’s team would make the Sweet-16.

Purpose

I guess I'm kind of selfish. I enjoyed the comment section of BGS almost as much as the blog articles and insight. I really hated to see the comment section disappear, let alone the great articles. NDNation has restrictions and a bunch of knuckleheads on their bulletin boards. Looking at other sites, I don't see the comments and interchange that was a trade mark of BGS.

Thus I have set-up this Blog Bulletin Board Forum to Share Thoughts and Meet to Discuss Issues. It is not intended to be a typical Notre Dame blog in that I don't consider myself qualified to write with expertise at the level that I read about on the dozen or so blogs currently on the web.